Chapter 27 - The Man Who Should Have Been DeadNo one moved.
The security monitors went black.
The room was so silent that I could hear the grandfather clock ticking in the hallway.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
My fingers tightened around the silver key.
The face on the screen...
It couldn't be.
My father had been buried twenty-two years ago.
I had stood beside his grave.
I remembered the rain.
The black umbrellas.
My mother's trembling hands.
The coffin disappearing beneath the earth.
So who...
Or what...
Had just looked into the camera?
Adrian was the first to speak.
"Deepfake."
His voice sounded uncertain.
"It has to be."
Matteo slowly shook his head.
"No."
"You don't know that."
"I do."
He looked directly at me.
"Because I've seen him."
Every head snapped toward him.
"When?"
"Three months ago."
The room exploded.
"You WHAT?"
"I followed one of Lorenzo's old financial transfers."
"It led me to northern Montana."
"There was an abandoned monastery."
"I thought it was another safe house."
His breathing became uneven.
"But when I entered..."
"I saw him."
"My father?"
Matteo nodded.
"He looked older."
"Thinner."
"But it was him."
My heartbeat thundered.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because he told me not to."
Silence.
"He said..."
Matteo swallowed.
"...that if you learned he was alive too soon..."
"...all three of his children would die."
Evelyn's face turned white.
"He knew about us."
"He always knew."
Alex suddenly interrupted.
"Wait."
Everyone looked at him.
"If your father has been alive for twenty-two years..."
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"Who exactly is buried in the Whitmore family cemetery?"
No one had an answer.
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